author
André Pirro
1869–1943
A French organist and musicologist, he helped early music studies take shape with influential writing on Bach and French music of the seventeenth century. His work joined scholarship with a working musician’s ear, which gives it lasting charm.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Saint-Dizier on February 12, 1869, André Pirro learned the organ from his father before continuing his studies in Paris. He became an organist and choirmaster at the Collège Stanislas, studied with César Franck, and later taught music history at the Schola Cantorum.
Pirro is especially remembered for his studies of Johann Sebastian Bach and for his research on older French music. His early book L'orgue de Jean-Sébastien Bach appeared in 1895, and his writing helped bring careful, historically minded attention to repertoire that many listeners were only beginning to rediscover.
He died in Paris on November 11, 1943. For readers interested in the roots of modern musicology, Pirro stands out as a scholar who wrote with both precision and a real feel for how the music lives in performance.